Here is how I promote Linux as a whole, I use public wifi since I simply can't afford Internet at home. I've always had a philosophy as instead of coercing someone into doing or trying something its better to sort of intrigue them enough to ask questions. So there really isn't a day that someone doesn't see my desktop and end up asking me what I am running. Of course I will answer and show them a little bit about the desktop, answer any other questions they may have and give them the link to a couple web sites for more info (mostly linux.com). I still get surprised sometimes cause once in a while I will have someone come up and ask me "what distro are you using?" or like last week "Is that arch linux? Did you install it yourself?"

I don't know what kind of crack cafepress is smokin' if they're thinking i'm going to spend 20 bucks for a shirt. Nonetheless, thanks for the link, I'll make sure to lurk that page hoping for some kind of sale.

M_onkeyman wrote::? I don't know what kind of crack cafepress is smokin' if they're thinking i'm going to spend 20 bucks for a shirt. Nonetheless, thanks for the link, I'll make sure to lurk that page hoping for some kind of sale.

I agree, the point was that they are available. happy shopping or lurking lol

AlbertP wrote:I once installed Linux at my teacher of French, but her computer consisted of all available Linux-incompatible hardware combined in 1 case. And, her accounting program did not have a Linux version and Wine was not able to run this (Microsoft .NET) program (something about 'void not found', .NET calling an undocumented function). As her Vista did not work as it should (harddisk problems), I have given her an old 2002 computer with XP, which had got some slow but could run the accounting program without problem. She still wants to switch to Linux, this computer supports it 100% as far as I know, but does not want to switch to another accounting program...

By the way, I have recommended Linux to 2 people that are fed up with Windows. I might install Linux at one of them, the other one is a bit xenophobic...

.try to get the ' source-code ' .. of her accounting-programm ... and make a compilation for LINUX ! ... with ' gcc ' or some other compiler ! ...

At the moment ... don't. Haven't acquired enough experience with it yet to really feel confident in endorsing it's use by others. Looks like a fantastic piece of software and atm, my hats off to the developers behind Mint. Will wait to make up my mind for awhile. lol ... new toys are always great. But sometimes the shine and the new wears off and it wasn't quite everything a person initially thought.

I think Mint is great ... just reserving judgement until I've used it for a bit, shrugs. It must be fantastic software though. I've only had to do 2 fresh installs so far. One was necessary, the other just being anal retentive and wanted it fresh and new. After 1/2 getting an idea of how to approach it.

I'm toying with the idea of buying some plain T-Shirts (or possibly sweat shirts) and having Troken's avatar printed on them as a Mint logo (viewtopic.php?f=175&t=54412&p=333966&hilit=troken#p333966250kJ)

The question is: Would this be in contravention of the logo currently used by Mint?

In the USA many school systems do not have enough money to afford continuning Windows based teaching. For that reason computers are being pulled out of the class rooms. The 3 year cycle of new Windows computer and new software is to expensive. Linux Mint would allow the school systems to afford to keep computers in the class room. It runs well on older computers does not cost much to install and is up dated for a very low cost. Linux also has some teaching software. The problem is getting the administrative side of the school systems to accept an idea other than Windows.

Other sites of placement of LInux Mint would be boys and girls clubs for after school activities and churches where many older people have a non functioning Windows computer and don't have the cash to fix Windows on a recurrent basis. Setting up classes in the church to install and teach use of Linux Mint would go a long way. Linux does not need constant attention to keep running.

I have been blabbering on about it since I installed it - 2 weeks? My mum definitely is next. But I usually suggest people to try it on old computer, that do not run well, so it's fail proof (and I obviously am the one to do it for them). Otherwise I find - amazingly a lot of people are happy to spend $£€ to buy something new and more expensive = therefor better. Even if they run into the problems with that, they'll never admit it, because they've spent £$€, that overrides somehow the discomfort. So far I got reaction from one recent Mac convert - it looks a lot like mac . So, for someone to try Mint they should be slightly adventurous, really annoyed by windows and somewhat cheapskate, not caught by the latest advertising, trying to salvage what they already got.

By using the live CD to "rescue" Window$ for them. Most of the ones that I know cannot fix their Window$ crap, so by me fixing it for them, they get to use the Live CD for other things. Such as checking email or the local weather, prior to me fixing their issue. I usually fix computers while the person is at work.

I've had at least 20 Mint converts this year alone, and 2 Sabayon Linux converts. The Sabayon users were of the wild type, liking that music that starts up with the OS. The ones that I converted to Mint, were those who were tired of the endless maintenance. Virus scanning, defragging, keeping unwanted registry entries & broken desktop shortcuts (of which these two does slow a PC to a crawl at times). While in Window$ there are some free apps for these issues, the good ones are paid for, usually yearly subscriptions.

However, no matter what anyone says about a Linux OS not being to receive/transmit viruses, I take no chance. I scan with the ClamTK application, of which the latest can be found here:

The version in the repository is an older version. However, and I push this upon anyone that I've steered to Mint, is that one doesn't need to run that scanner daily. Unless the user is one that makes heavy use of Window$ via VirtualBox.

One no longer has to wait for the next version of Mint is released to get the latest stable version Firefox (or Google Chrome & Opera) any longer. This is a major plus. I always tell this to those who are interested in Mint. But the thing that I don't do, is cram it down one's throat. If one is interested in trying or learning, then fine, I'll spend time with whoever. If they don't want to hear about it (even after I rescue their costly Window$ for them), I say nothing.

Unfortunately, there's plenty of those who cannot see a good thing, even if it was under their nose. Many has the attitude that if something's free, it's not worth having, & one stated to me that using a product for free is wrong. I told that person that there are donation links on Mint's site, & if she feels the need to pay for what she uses, that's quite fine also. She accepted the DVD that I burned (I keep around 5 of the latest version, the last (11), & the long term version, Mint 9. Most people that I know uses 64 bit computers, so if one requests me to install, w/o asking, I install the x64 version.

I promote Linux Mint, and Open Source in general, by doing the following:

Always carry a USB Thumbdrive on me, with Mint 11 and Mint 11 LMDE liveCD's installed. When (not if!) people complain about Windows being slow, inefficient, expensive, or getting all sorts of crap installed due to "promotions" of 3rd party software, I ask them if I can have 5-10 minutes to show them something...

I read magazines in public transport (I commute about 2,5-3 hours every day), or work on my Mint 11 netbook. I've noticed some reactions to the magazines and my desktop before, but so far noone has come up to me and ask.

My mother is a teacher and as an end-user she's participating in an IT-workgroup. We often discuss how her employer thinks about IT, what they implement, and how money always is a concern. I tend to give her advice based on Open Source solutions. I also give her my old magazines with marked articles which could be of (great) help in her environment. That being said, the powers that be are ignorant and oblivious, so they'll probably stick to paying too much, being vendor-locked, and princess about that...

People ask me about alternatives to programs X or Y, I tell them to visit http://www.osalt.com and google for "<name of application> Open Source".

At work I am allowed to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux instead of Windows XP/7. So I "pimped" it a bit with AWN and a nice wallpaper related to the company, that really grabs people's attention. I also replaced the windows sticker on the laptop, now rocking the fedora.

Make sure that people know that Linux is better than Windows regarding software-weaknesses and exploits, but not a saint. However, due to the philosophy and community, the hacks/exploits that are being found will be fixed within a couple of days, most even within hours. On the MS-side, you'll most likely have to wait for patch-tuesday, and probably even longer.

If I help anyone out with PC-related stuff, and they wish to give my a financial compensation, I tell them to give that money to an Open Source project. Stuff like Mint, Wikipedia, etc. I don't mind helping people out, it doesn't cost them anything extra, but it does make them focus at least a little bit on stuff outside of the mainstream. (Bad term I know, Wikipedia is the worlds 5th most visited website)

So far, the first point I made has led to two family-members asking me to install it to HDD My niece didn't go as far, but is very happily working with Libre Office instead of MS Office. Support is VERY important in these cases, as they're all accustomed to Windows, so I told them they should mail me if they had non-urgent questions, and call me if it was blocking them from something important (from their point of view!).

At work I get a lot of attention with my laptop, I've handed out a couple of manuals on how to make the transition, but so far noone has actually taken the plunge...